Alternative and complementary communication: a success story of raising children with disabilities in a boarding school

ADC trainee teachers held a seminar for employees of the State Institution "Ivenets Boarding School for Disabled Children with Physical Development Disabilities" on the use of alternative and additional communication. During the workshop, the most important conditions for the successful use of ADC were revealed - understanding the need that:
ADK is available to all categories of children and adults who do not use speech;
it is obligatory to use ADC funds in work with special children;
diagnosis in ADC should be continuous;
success factor is unity, team building;
the continuous nature of the activity on the use of ADC;
desire to work and believe in the pupil.

According to the reactions of the employees present, one could notice their interest and desire to learn from their work experience. Colleagues looked with pleasure at the “talking beads”, communicative passports and books, tablets of our pupils presented to them, asked clarifying questions. It was interesting for the listeners to hear what difficulties were encountered in the process of training the ADK and what ways we took to solve them, how we got out of this or that situation. According to trainee teacher Elena Romanyuk, it was significant that the director of the boarding school was present among the students during the seminar, who received information with great interest and gave feedback, emphasizing that the main thing is the desire to work, to understand the pupils. The materials presented by the working group of the project interested the participants of the seminar. The results achieved confirm the need for the introduction of ADC in the daily work of the educator and the creation of a communicative environment.
It is ADC that is a means of expressing needs, a manifestation of the personal qualities of a person who does not have the opportunity to communicate through oral speech.
A mobile application for the quick creation of picture symbols ADC RAZMOVA was presented at the seminar.